


Stellar Relations – The End of Peace

by FlyingDutchy



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space Opera, F/F, Intergalactic War, Plot Driven, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-18 19:33:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13688325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingDutchy/pseuds/FlyingDutchy
Summary: Kara Zor-El of Krypton had decided to run away from her duties to the interstellar Kryptonian Empire and explore the vastness of the universe for resources that her people could use. A hyper jump ends in utter failure and she is stranded in a faraway system where she’s found by a fledgling civilisation setting its first steps into the unknown.Little do all the actors know that this is only the first part of a chain reaction that will change the face of the galaxy.





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is something new I'm trying out. It's an original story that features some of the cast of supergirl and some other shows. It will focus around the story of our main characters, Alex and Kara, but also around the larger plot that is a science fiction military story. 
> 
> This is the prologue that sets the scene.
> 
> Some General Notes:   
> Throw away everything you know about the DC universe--just like in an all-human story, this story will feature both similarities to the DC one, but also some things will be absent or completely changed.

 

 

 

The rocks glowed blue under the light of the start. The star’s light, of course, was white as any other. However, the particular chemistry of this planet’s atmosphere caused the sky to turn green but the ground to turn blue. It was a surreal sight, one she had not seen on any of her previous explored planets. There was little vegetation, this rock planet was in its early stages of development. She had seen single-celled life in the depths of the oceans, and maybe in a few million cycles this life could evolve into something more.

Jotting down the details of her thoughts in specifications, she noted that the planet had a few very valuable minerals. This alone made the planet a worthy candidate for resource extraction. As with any discovery on a planet with the early beginnings of life, she wondered briefly about the ethicality of interrupting its natural development. After all, they evolved from single celled life as well.

In the end, those discussion were left to the ones deciding to colonize this particular rock. The distance to the core territories meant that it was hardly a candidate in the near future.

“Kalecx, log planet X33A3-3.” This was the third planet of this particular, unnamed system. She hoped that her findings would lead to a few systems changing their names from the practical numerical designation to something personal. A part of her would love it if one could be named after her! “Planet X33A3-3 has a breathable atmosphere and cellular lifeforms in its water based oceans, life is sparse and recent development models estimate another 300 million _cycles_ until more advanced life would start to populate the surface. It’s a prime resource candidate. Besides the various heavy metals, the recent supernova of nearby star X33A2 caused the formation of Alaryte Crystals on the surface. In the past thousand surveyed planets, I have only found one other deposit of these crystals which are key for many of our most advanced technologies. Log completed.”

“Okies, Kara! Log completed as you wish. Do you want to transfer it home immediately or should I hold on to it? It’s not that heavy for me to carry… Which is good because I don’t have hands.”

Kara snickered to herself and the AI controlling her ship. Kalecx has been her companion for the past three cycles, ever since she left Krypton to explore the galaxy. She reached out and patted the ship, Kalecx wouldn’t feel it like she would, but it does understand gestures. “Let’s hold on to it. I want to make an informal posting as well. I got people waiting for those.”

She jumped up, pushing herself from the ground and hovered next to ship’s cockpit, the AI opened the doors and she landed into her seat. The sleek white interior was contrasted by the holographic blue menus that popped up when it reregistered her presence. Her mind bathed in the familiar comfort that the ship’s mind provided. It felt like a cushion the supported her consciousness, like a pillow on a hard chair. “Kal, what’s the most beautiful spot on this planet?”

Kara loved exploring the universe. Which is good because when she started doing it, it wasn’t because she loved it. No, she wanted to get away from the confined lifestyle she lived on Krypton, her species’ capital planet. The best part was that, despite the hundreds, or thousands, planets she visited, each one was unique. Some parts looked alike, but every planet had something that was truly unique. Kalecx knew what she liked and therefor scanned the surface of the whole planet. “I’ve got a place where the Alaryte refracts the light in intricate patterns.”

“Could you take me there?” Kalecx knew her for over a decade now and before these words were uttered the ship was already in the air speeding through the atmosphere. This AI had taken a liking to her for some strange reason all those years ago, and when she expressed a desire to fly a space ship, he made a choice to become a ship AI, _her_ ship AI. She was grateful and honored, not many AIs make such a decision and not many AIs exist in general. Her parents did complain that she would sooner bond with her AI than another Kryptonian. The thought left a sour taste in her mouth. Her mother’s meddling was one of the reasons she had to escape the prison that was Krypton.

The blue ground sped past below her, on the horizon she saw the dark shadow of the dark side of the planet creeping ever closer. Then she saw it, right on the edge of the shadow, on the edge of day and night, a colorful display of all possible hues. The blue light scattered and took on energy intrinsic from Crystals and changed frequencies, producing an ever changing array of colors.

“Wow.” This planet was easily in her top ten. It would make for a beautiful place to do her video log. “You know how to woo a girl.”

“I do have a particular advantage of being able to read your mind, unlike your peers.” Kara detached her mind from the ship and stepped out of the cockpit. In wonder she stared as the lights danced in front of her. They seemed almost sentient. She knew, of course, that it was the magnification of the irregularities from the fusion in the star and their interaction to the highly volatile crystals. Still, her breath was stuck in her throat as she watched them. It almost made her delete the previous log in fear that mining efforts would disrupt such a display. Too bad the crystals were so valuable.

She took the three parts of the holographic records and placed them around the incredible light show. Anyone watching this on Krypton would almost get the same experience as her. “Ready, Kara?”

She nodded and waited for the signal to go to green. “Hello everyone, here’s your newest update from your favorite explorer Kara Zor-El! Today, on my third anniversary of exploring the stars, I have a special treat for you.”

 

 

Tired and content she sat back down in the seat of her cockpit, once again her mind was enveloped by the familiar hug provided by her only friend. “Shall I upload both the report and video log.”

They didn’t _need_ to speak with the connection between their minds, but the AI had strangely professed that it preferred speaking to the direct connection. Kara had known that Kalecx, like many AIs, struggled with their lack of real body. “Yes, please.”

“Shall I delete the messages from Kal-El, your parents and Astra?”

“Yes—no wait, you jerk. I always listen to Astra’s message.” She felt the laughter reverb in her mind as she grumbled in her seat. “I’m going to use all your computing powers to play mindless games if you are like that!”

Kalecx knew the threat was idle and simply started playing the message left by her aunt. “Little One. It has almost been three years since you left but it seems longer. You parents are still too stubborn to see that you deserve your own freedom. I have immensely enjoyed your discoveries and play them daily. I do hope you’ll name your next big discovery after your dear old aunt.” Kara smiled, Astra wasn’t old by any stretch and she would be glad when she sees her newest holovid.

“However, I must also bear a bit of a warning. I will be posted to the Dellasiran border under a diplomatic mission for the next three months. Things are happening here and for the first time in centuries there’s uncertainty at the upper echelons of our society. I am not urging you to come back, especially since your parents still have not rescinded their archaic stance, but I am urging you to be careful.”

Kara was left with a pit in her stomach. Astra never voiced her concern with the workings of Kryptonian or galactic politics to her since she left, while her parents continually asked her to come back for Krypton’s sake. She saved the message for later reviewing. “Should I return, K?”

“You should do what’s best for you. You know what will happen should you return. As Astra says, your parents haven’t changed their course.”

It didn’t take long to make up her mind, if her parents were stubborn then so was she. “Plot jump to X33A4.”

The ship lifted up from the planet she had dubbed ‘Astria’, for the light show reminded her of the one defiant streak in her aunt’s hair. With the ground behind her, she flew through the dense clouds into the starry night sky. The remnants of the nearby supernova were still clearly visible, the immense gas clouds that had yet to condense to a new solar system with its planets were a sight to behold.

“Jumping in five, four, three, two, strap in!”

The stars started to become white streak when suddenly she was thrown from her seat and she smacked against the window. It didn’t hurt, but she was disoriented. The ship groaned and trembled. The warp tunnel shook and bent and the ship veered of course into the sides. “Kalecx?”

There was no response. Against the immense forces that threatened to pull her and the ship apart, Kara clambered to the seat. All core computing systems were down, Kalecx was rebooting. With a few quick presses, she enabled manual control. The ship slammed into the wall of the hyperlane tunnel and with all her effort she managed to stay seated into the cockpit.

Manual control in hyperspeed was extremely dangerous and difficult. It was the basic reason why they needed AIs. _We’re not going to die here!_

She gave a series of commands and the ship stopped spinning and started pointing its nose in the direction is was being carried by the current. “Alright, I can do this. Hold on, K.”

Suddenly the tunnel veered off and while her response was quick, the damaged ship couldn’t keep up. She slammed into the side and the cockpit broke. Air was sucked out and she was left gasping for a moment until the emergency shields sprung to life. Breathing heavily, she pressed the wrong direction for the ventral thrusters and once more the ship crashed into the edge. Warning lights lit up, systems were being torn apart and she was leaking energy to the surroundings.

Then, without warning, she was suddenly back into normal space. Drifting.

“Kalecx?” She questioned. In the distance she could see a yellow-ish star, it was the closest to their position but it could be weeks of travel with a damaged ship. What am I going to do? She really messed up this time, and she didn’t even know what went wrong.

“K-ara?” A distorted voice sounded from the belly of the ship. “Something’s w-wrong… cannot connect to you.”

“Kalecx! Thank Rao you’re alive.” Kara quickly checked system vitals. Based on current energy consumption rate and leakage, they would not survive the trip to the nearest star to use its energy. “Something went wrong with our jump, you’re wounded and leaking energy. You need to put me into stasis and go into self-repair mode.”

“I don’t… I feel strange.” Kara felt sad about the state of her AI. An AI’s sense of the outer world was entirely dependent on a neural interface with the ship, and the ship’s neural interface with its pilot. Even if the AI still had control of the ship, it seemed that the neural links were damaged, which is why it could act, but not feel.

“It will be alright, I promise. You will repair yourself. Hey, maybe it’s better that you start repairing when you can’t feel it. I know I would prefer that!”

“I- Thanks. I will do that.” A special needle pierced her skin, injecting her with a substance that would put her into a stasis until the antidote was given or it wore off. “Sleep well, Kara.”

“Get well soon, Kalecx. And try to contact my family.” She’d forgotten about checking whether the communications array was still working, but her friend would figure everything out. She hugged her knees to her chest as she lost the lack of feeling in her limbs. When everything was frozen in this position, she finally closed her eyes and relinquished her mind as well.

 

 

Her ship was drifting towards the star in the system. Unbeknownst to them, they would never reach it. For they would be intercepted by a ship from a new spacefaring species that inhabited this particular system.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought. Your feedback is invaluable!


	2. ONE: Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the title of the story to something that better fit this.

 

 

**Sol System – High Mars Orbit – TSC Research Station ‘Isaac Newton’**

 

Her steady step reverbed through the metal hallways. Young officers bustled around, their navy clothes impeccable, as they hurried to whatever emergency they needed to solve. The whole world seemed to be in a constant state of emergency lately. Not a single one looked longer than a fraction of a second at her, despite the fact that she stood out like a sore thumb. The only civvie in a military setting. Her white lab coat over her simple sweater signaled to everyone that she wasn’t worth giving a second glance.

She hid a smirk under her lips, because just this morning she received security clearing that went all the way up the highest level. Only High Command would know what she did after today. With confident strides, she walked towards a door guarded by two marines who regarded her with barely concealed curiosity and warning. She ignored them as she used her badge, then scanned both her fingerprints and iris, before the door opened without a hitch.

A second door only opened after the first had been closed. A third door after that. She recognized the tell-tale signs of an airlock and a detachable line. She surmised that in the event of a catastrophic failure this whole section could detach itself from the space station. Being on Research Station ‘Isaac Newton’, the newest and most secure of all of the Terra Space Command’s, had been a surreal experience itself, but this was next level.

She walked into a large conference room. The first thing she noticed is the lack of military personnel. In fact, a lack of people in general. Very few had access here. There was a large oval table and on the other side of the room was a large window, but the view was obscured by a polarized screen, preventing anyone from seeing through it. There was a chair ready for her, together with some paper work ready for her to sign a Confidentiality agreement that, should she break it, would mean high treason.

Doors to a secondary room opened the second she sat down. A dark skinned, broad shouldered man entered the room. He was wearing uniform, but not Navy. The letters on the badge read DEO. _I knew it._

“Welcome Dr. Danvers,” the man reached out to shake her hand. His big strong hands dwarfed hers. “My name is Hank Henshaw and I am here to show you something only five-hundred and seventy-three people know, including us. Before we start, you have read and agreed the terms?”

She shoved the signed document, which she had been sent a copy of in advance, in his direction. He briefly glanced at the required proof and then filed it away. “If I may, why me?”

“Your specialization makes you qualified, your personal motivation makes you _uniquely_ qualified.” She couldn’t stop a brief flash of sadness and anger on her face, before nodding determinately. The burly man led the two of them towards the large window. “I assume you know everything there is to know about the Discovery?” She nodded. “Then there is something that the public speculated about, but never truly understood. The Discovery was manned.”

It should come as a surprise but it really didn’t. She had suspected, a bioengineer with a specialization of extra-ordinary biology, a secondary PhD in linguistics, and a highly trained FBI agent and lab specialist. There was only one possibility that required these specific capabilities.

Without care that she could read the combination, Hank pushed the buttons to the screen until the lock glowed green. “Last chance to turn back.” She shook her head. “Well, this is _it._ ”

The polarization of the glass changed and suddenly she looked into a spacious room as any on a space station, where volume was a premium. The room itself was unremarkable, but what was inside was on one hand the most remarkable thing she’d ever seen, and on the other nothing like she’d expected.

In the center of the room, sitting on a bed, was the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. A blonde woman was wearing something akin to a hospital gown. Her blonde hair was flowing down her shoulders. Piercing blue eyes looked up from whatever she was toying with and looked at the glass, unseeing presumably because it was a one-way mirror. Alex’s breath hitched. “She’s… just like us.”

“ _It_ looks like us. But as far as our scientists have been able to determine, which admittedly isn’t a whole lot, that is as far as it goes.” There was a warning in his voice. Looks may be deceiving. It took a moment before her heart calmed down again. “Here’s what we’ve been able to discover.”

A tablet was shoved into her hands and she immediately started reading. Found in stasis, woke up only a few weeks ago, it speaks but not our language. Presumably it has DNA but cells are highly protective of themselves and even self-destruct under certain instances, like it was protected against prodding for exactly this reason. Skin is nearly impenetrable, but feels just like human skin. Not aggressive, not cooperative either.

“That’s not a lot, yeah.” Basically it was less than one could find out in ten minutes research. “It’s fascinating. She looks just like us, do you wonder what that means?”

“It means that it is very dangerous for you to refer to _it_ as a _she_.” Alex swallowed, apparently she had failed some sort of test. She nodded tersely. “Make no mistake, it isn’t human.”

“Yes, sir.” She couldn’t wait to meet her— _it._ Well, that distinction was going to be difficult to keep track off. “But if I want to extract information, I need to learn the language and perhaps treat _it_ like a person.”

“As long as you remember why we need this information.” Not a day passed by that she didn’t remember. Hank saw the determination in her eyes. She would discover all there was to discover. “Alright, then I guess it’s time for you to acquaint yourself with our guest.”

She almost did a double take, snapping her head back towards her superior. The man had an insufferable smirk on his face. “You want me to go in there, right away? Like _now,_ now?”

“You said it yourself, you may need to interact with it.” Alex knew this was another test, a supervised interaction to see how see she would interact with their only specimen of alien life.

She nodded and moved to the door. A series of three doors separated the rest of the ship from the room in which the alien was housed. Between them she was decontaminated. Until she finally faced the last security door. A voice in the back of her head found it stupid that they had three doors, but only one window. Surely an escape attempt would just ignore these doors and instead try to burst through the window.

Henshaw’s voice cracked through the earpiece she was wearing. “It’s not dangerous and we have various methods of disabling it should she attack you.” Methods you don’t even know work, because you haven’t tested them yet for fear of antagonizing it and possibly removing any and all cooperation.

The door hissed as it slid open. The alien tensed on the bed, but didn’t turn around to face her. Alex had a clear view of the slightly toned body. Her throat was dry, she never did well around beautiful women but this pressure was higher than ever. She decided to clear her throat to catch its attention. In a snap it turned its head and blue eyes raked over her body, until finally resting on her face. Plump lips seemed to whisper something breathlessly, Alex couldn’t make out what.

“What did you do?” She heard through her headset.

“Nothing.” She whispered beneath her breath. The alien’s eyes narrowed at her mumble, before relaxing once again.

“Its response is unusual. Continue, Danvers.”

Carefully she approached the alien perched on the bed. Alex saw that the blonde had been toying with a tablet, maybe left behind on purpose by the researchers. Blue eyes followed her every step, but it made no attempt to approach her.

“Hello.” She said carefully. The blonde tilted her head just a tiny bit, as if trying to make sense of her language. A second later, something was returned, but it had a structure that Alex could not recognize. It was a song, a rhyme, a poem, it had rhythm and cadence, and it sounded nothing like a human civilization had produced, ever. It was beautiful, just like her. _It._ She had to hammer that down, it wasn’t human.

Alex moved ever closer. She bent forward to get a good look into its eyes. As she closed in, she swore that she saw something she would describe as mirth reflect into its eyes. She hadn’t noticed that she was closing in until the alien bobbed its head ever so slightly forward, touching their foreheads together. As if burned, she snapped back. Disappointment, at least based on how humans expressed it, flittered across the face of their captive.

“That’s enough for now, Dr. Danvers.” Quickly, she turned around and left the confines of the room. Once she got back into the main observation room, she saw that their specimen had returned to fiddling randomly with the tablet she was given. Though there was something different with how she sat on the bed. It was almost like it was more determined than before. Determined to do what?

“Excellent work, Danvers.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“It responded to you unlike any other scientist, except for when it woke from the stasis for the first time. That one interaction gave us the most data, which was the only time it uttered any words at all.” Alex decided she must get her hands on that recording, maybe she could learn its language.

“It’s strange, all its expressions look so… human.” Hank nodded. “I can’t wait to study it some more.”

“Good. You know what’s at stake here, hopefully you manage to find out things we do not know yet.”

 

 

 

**Rao System – Krypton – Kryptonopolis**

 

She hoped her footsteps betrayed her anger. With as much force as possible, she pushed through the guards leading towards the great chamber of the family of El. The guards blocked her entry towards the chamber because she had no appointment. With a quick strike from both her arms, she pushed the unfortunate guards away—it wasn’t their fault but she had a point to make. Then she struck with all her might on the great doors, they snapped under her prowess and pieces flew across the floor. And she strode through the rubble and dust before it could settle.

A multitude of eyes focused on her, but only a few were of interest to her. Zor-El, Alura, Jor-El, Lara and Kal-El were seated on the throne and surrounding chairs of importance. The ruling class of Krypton, its Emperor and Empress, and the Emperor’s extended family.

“Everyone out.” She commanded those that were not part of the family. Many footsteps scurried in the direction that she just came from, past the dazed guards. Only one pair followed her and soon a hand landed on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and she could feel his apologetic stare over her shoulder.

“Astra In-Ze, you return from your duty at the border earlier than expected.” Zor-El stood up from his throne to welcome her. “What is the reason for this destructive visit?”

Anger boiled over. “I was wondering why we have yet to launch a mission to find your own daughter, Zor-El?” The head of state of the whole Krypton Empire, which spanned multiple star systems and had dozens of planets, had the audacity to look confused. “ _Don’t_ play with me.”

“Do you have information we do not? Kara has been on her self-imposed exile, or ‘mission’ she likes to call it.”

They really had no clue. “Alura, when was the last time you watched any of Kara’s, your own daughter, updates?”

The Empress quickly cast a glance at her husband. “I don’t know… maybe a month ago?”

“It’s been half a year since Kara’s last transmission. My communications were restored yesterday ahead of schedule and I was checking out her latest discoveries when I noticed that it had been half a year. The last message was just after I went on my mission across the border.”

Shock reverbed through the royal family. “That doesn’t mean—”

“The longest period between any two transmissions was five days, and that was when she forgot about black-hole gravitational waves disrupting her communications so we received a few updates later than she was supposed to send them. Which you would have known if you actually looked after your own child.”

Her sister bristled with anger. “We have many responsibilities as rulers—”

“I don’t give an Urak’s butt about your responsibilities as rulers. Your child, _my niece,_ is missing and you don’t even know it.” It was well known that Astra loved her niece. “Let me rephrase the statement. Krypton’s _heir_ is missing, maybe you care then.”

Out of everyone in the throne room, she spotted one that was genuinely sad and shocked about this discovery, and truly scared what it would mean in the extreme case—a case that she didn’t want to consider in the slightest. Kal-El’s expression was one of true fear, while he was desperately searching the data crystals for evidence where Kara has last been seen.

“It’s true.” Kal-El spoke up. “Before her last transmission, Kara had always send an update every three days at the fewest except for that one time.”

Zor-El crumbled back into his throne and his wife was stunned into silence. They had messed up and everyone knew it. Astra wanted to smack so much sense into them that it would get her killed for treason. She knew she could take everyone in the room at once if Kal-El stood aside, her genes were specifically selected to become Krypton’s finest general and warrior. The only one who was just as strong as she was in this room was Kal-El.

“You will give me two of our armed scout ships and me and Kal-El will scour the ends of the universe to find your heir, who also happens to be your daughter.” Kal-El jumped up and joined her immediately, just like she thought he would. While she certainly had a better bond with her niece, she also shared a good connection with Kal-El. Astra knew that the last thing he wanted was to become the next Emperor, so they needed to find Kara or he would become the heir.

Her husband Non stepped up and put a reassuring arm on her shoulders. They couldn’t have children of their own, their DNA was not compatible and their tasks didn’t permit them to raise a family. Which is why she had taken such a liking to the daughter of her sister, especially when she found that Alura’s mothering skills were lacking.

“Take as much as you want.” Astra nodded and rushed out of the throne room with Kal-El short on her heels. As she made her leave, she heard Alura burst into sobs. A sick feeling of satisfaction crept up her heart. She used to love her sister, but her sister’s treatment of her own daughter had created a rift between them, that rift had grown to the size of a canyon over time.

Still, no one deserved to have their child be missing. So she had a rescue mission to plan.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They've met and someone is coming after Kara. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	3. TWO: Hello

 

 

**Sol System – High Martian Orbit – TSC Research Station ‘Isaac Newton’**

In frustration she threw the petri dish across the lab. It shattered with a resounding crack against the metallic grey wall. She wasn’t worried about spoiling the sample because it had already spoiled itself. If she did anything more than looking at it, the cells actively defended themselves until their destruction. All she could see were very similar cell structures to what was common with humans—something they already knew. Ultimately, the past three hours were useless.

Well, not entirely useless, the measurements that she had done told them the force a single cell could withstand before breaking. It was a hundred times stronger than a regular human cell. The strange thing was that the cells seemed to overload. Even under the limit load, the cells seemed to hold out for a set period of time. With half that force, it held out twice as long, a quarter, four times as much. And so on. Alex had jutted the findings down as some kind of reactive armor. She hypothesized that any weapons they had, barring nuclear weapons, couldn’t hurt the alien except maybe burn off a one layer of cells—if that.

Hank was happy with her findings, at least. She wondered if their alien was part of some sort of advanced warrior society. Something like the Greek Amazons of the old myths. This afternoon she would go in again, like she had been doing the last week. Not much had changed, even if _it_ —Alex had to consciously focus on not humanizing their captive—seemed to study her as she made observations. It seemed content enough to watch her and listen to her mutterings. It seemed intelligent enough that it understood that it was being observed.

Still, it did seem to react differently to her than to other researchers. She watched video tapes of it and her colleagues. There was a stark contrast to its interaction before and after Alex was introduced. Before, it would sit in the room and stoically ignore anyone that came in. If they wanted to touch it, it wouldn’t struggle also wouldn’t cooperate at all. And even now it reacted differently to Alex than to her colleagues. It was still uncooperative, but while it mostly seemed to ignore the other researches, men and women alike, it seemed to focus on her fully whenever she was in the room.

“Hello.” Alex said to it when she entered the room. The tablet she held in her hands contained a list of observations. She always observed its patterns, its movements, to discern responses to her questions and gestures. There wasn’t much for the alien to do inside the room. Calling the cell spartan was giving it too much credit. The only furniture was a bed, a table and a couple of chairs, and a toilet and shower which were just out there in the open. It was dehumanizing and human rights tribunals would oppose such treatment if the subject was human.

Their captive didn’t seem to mind, though Alex seemed to recognize a growing sense of dread in the corner of its piercing blue eyes. The alien tried to hide it from anyone, but it only seemed to slip whenever she was in the room. Alex was comparing the notes she was making about its expressions when she heard it speak.

“Hello, De-Ar-Ah-Dan-Vers.” Her head snapped up so quickly she felt the whiplash. With wide eyes she looked at the alien. It seemed to smile a toothy grin, mischievous, and bashful at the same time. It shook its head as if embarrassed. Alex couldn’t help but subscribe the actions to human emotions, because they seemed so similar.

“H-h-hello.” She stuttered in response. The alien didn’t seem to care for her sudden loss of words. In a burst of movement, it scrambled from the bed and walked over to her and stole her tablet. It a response she pulled it back. The alien stood rock solid as it simply overpowered her. Then, it seemed to read. It scrolled the list like it was daily practice and read the words on them. Alex was glad that only behavioral measures were on there and nothing sensitive. She was sure that after today a whole new list of banned and allowed items would be construed. It gave back the list and to her surprise, some data was filled in. It had ticked a box next to ‘observes its observer(s)’.

Then it sat back down like nothing had happened.

It took a while for Alex to recover fully, but the alien seemed happy to watch her. “You speak English.”

“I speak. What English?” Her-- _its_  voice was soft, but resolute.

“English is one our languages.” There was an intense focus, almost as if those eyes could burn through her as it concentrated and processed what she said. Then the blue eyes grew in surprise before composing another question.

“Not one language?” The inflection in the tone indicated a question just like humans did. Perhaps it was just excellent in mimicking other species, similarly to learning languages, but Alex thought it would be highly improbable. She nodded in response. “How many?”

The real answer was too complicated, because there were thousands of languages still in use, technically. However most people knew at least English, Chinese or both. “Many.”

“One is new?” The alien made a planet shaped gesture with its hands and Alex understood the question as whether they were recently unified under one name and before she knew it she nodded in response. Then she smacked her own head. The alien was beating her in her own game. Alex had not learned a single important thing about it, but now it had learned a few key aspects about them. Hank would kill her. She panicked and then she felt a hand on her shoulder. Alex looked up and saw blue eyes look at her apologetically. “Sorry.”

She scrambled back and hurried from the room. Catching her breath, she watched the alien from the safe distance behind the window. Alex was a hundred percent sure that the alien had a dejected look at her sudden departure. Not a second later, her superior rushed into the room.

“Are you alright? Did it hurt you?” Alex shook her head. Besides the initial head bump, this was the second time it touched someone of its own volition. “What did it do?”

“ _I_ was being interrogated.” Alex said. “It’s extremely smart. It asked about our languages and inferred that we only recently unified under a single government. It now knows exactly the state of our political development.”

Hank studied the form. “Did you learn anything?”

“It understands human emotions and gestures. It learns languages at an unparalleled speed and can read English.” She thought back at the emotions it displayed. “I’m ninety percent sure they also use similar gestures, and have a similar capacity for emotions.”

“That’s better than nothing. From now on, be very careful what you tell it. But also sharing things like that may make it share information voluntarily. Take the rest of the day off, Danvers.”

 

 

Life on board a space station was its own ecosystem. News traveled fast so when the first person saw the nearly destroyed husk of a Wells-class destroyer limp back into port of the neighboring shipyard, silence and sadness spread through the ranks. She didn’t know anyone on board of such a vessel personally, but almost everyone knew someone who had friends on there. Vasquez had a friend on board that ship. He was not amongst those that returned. So she found herself in the bar, Vasquez was downing shots of tequila and her initial sadness and anger had given way for happy banter. Everyone coped differently.

Alex was sipping her soda while Vasquez was hitting the hard liquor. They spoke of anything but the destroyed ship. “So you’re saying she touched you?”

Separated from the rest of the crew, there were relatively few people Alex was able to socialize with. Whenever she went out and mingled with the Navy folks, she got stares and questions about what was happening in the lab behind the closed doors. Of course, she couldn’t blab about it. “ _It_ touched me. Don’t refer to it as a human.”

“It looks like one, apparently talks like one and talks like one. It even smells like one—”

“Too much information, Vas.”

“Look, you’ve made more progress these past few days than any of us. You’re making us DEO grunts look bad.” Alex shrugged. She didn’t feel like she was responsible for any of the progress, but more like the alien had decided that she— _it_ —would open up to her and her alone. “We just want to know your secret.”

“No secrets, I literally have no idea why it likes me.”

She downed her soda and misses the burn that used to follow. Alex eyes the bottles behind the bar and the glass of tequila in Vasquez’s hands with envy. “So you admit it, she does like you.”

Alex groaned in frustration. Vasquez was nice enough, but stubborn as a mule. “I don’t know. When it touched me, it seemed to know that I was distressed at having divulged information without realizing it. It was a comforting pat.”

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Vasquez poured herself another drink, the DEO officer offered the bottle to her but she declined. “We always used to bash the old science fiction movies for simply making aliens look like slightly different humans. And what is the first alien we find? One that looks exactly like us.”

She couldn’t help but snicker at the absurdity. What were the chances? “Do you think it’s a coincidence?”

“Of course not. Statistically impossible. Unless somehow all intelligent life looks like us.” It could be that evolution favored bipedal mammals to evolve to become intelligent, but the details were too similar. “If I had to put money on it, and this would upend most evolutionary science, is that we have somehow been put here by their civilization. Maybe a lost colony or something.”

“I think that story has already been written. Aliens that built the pyramids, and all that.” Alex laughed at Vasquez’s mocked outrage. They both downed another glass. The other woman grimaced at the burn.

“It always ends the same in those movies as well. We kick their ass.”

“You think it’s them?”

Vasquez seemed deep in thought. “She looks so innocent though. It might be anyone. We’re just fumbling in the dark here.”

Alex had to agree. Whoever it was they were fighting, they were more advanced than them and they were just newcomers to the galactic stage. Which admittedly was not as empty as everyone had thought. Her short haired colleague reached for another drink, disoriented she spilled just as much as she managed to pour into the shot glass. She raised her glass to Alex, who just held up her soda. “To those we lost…”

“And for the battles we'll win." She drank her soda while Vasquez managed to down the tequila only partially before letting it drop. The small glass shattered on the floor.

“Shit, sorry.” Vasquez stumbled as she bend forward to pick up the sharp fragments. Alex stopped her.

“Go to bed, Vas. I’ll clean up.” Vasquez thanked her and stumbled from the bar. Alex shook her head. Lightweight. She used to be able to drink at least twice that, back when… Flashbacks from her own period of self-destruction rose to the forefront of her mind. Those memories are best forgotten. Everyone copes with loss differently. Luckily Vasquez didn’t seem the type to completely drown away her sorrows.

Alex cleaned up and then followed the short haired woman, but somehow her feet didn’t take her to her own room. Instead she found herself standing in front of the one-way mirror. Huddled on the bed was the form of the alien, it hugged its knees to its chest. Studying its small form, it seemed so human. The fetal position, one of security, was so similar. On close inspection, she saw its head move. Something spurred her to turn on the sound from the room.

At first she heard nothing. Then, low and soft like a whisper, she heard something. The same song-like language. Alex didn’t understand what was being said, but it was repetitive. One word seemed to come up more often than others. _Rao._ The repetitive nature reminded her of something of old, religious prayers.

 _She_ was scared.

 

 

 

**Rao System – Krypton Orbit – ‘Rao’s Eye’**

Unlike the ship Kara had left in, Astra’s ship was a few sizes larger. It housed a crew of twenty well trained personnel. Officially, they were diplomats, but all of them were highly trained in combat scenarios. Still, the Rao’s Eye was not a warship. It was an oversized explorer with simple armament. There were creatures in space that sometimes needed the plasma torpedo persuasion method.

Astra liked the ship, but didn’t love it like Kara did hers. She remembered how Kara doted on Kalecx and when the AI decided to become a ship AI, the blonde had been over the moon. Literally, because she made at least a thousand laps the first time she sat inside the deathtrap. It was probably the ship’s fault that Kara had left in the first place, because it gave her the possibility. Astra couldn’t be angry at Kalecx, he just wanted what was best for Kara. She had even agreed at that time.

Now she was overlooking the bridge as Fleet Leader of the meagre fleet of two ships. She watched as a fiery comet rose up from Krypton’s red atmosphere. The orange flame was still clearly visible against the red backdrop. The second ship, Argo’s Shield, stopped next to hers. The ship AIs interfaced with each other and suddenly Kal-El appeared in his holographic form in front of her.

“Ship Leader Kal-El of the Argo’s Shield with Irtix as AI reporting for duty.” Like all royalty, Kal-El was trained to command ships and fleets. Normally she would be his subordinate, but this was her mission and they both agreed that she had more experience.

“Fleet Leader Astra In-Ze of Rao’s Eye with Lox as AI acknowledges Kal-El.” The formalities were passed and now the AIs fully interfaced and suddenly she was able to see all details of Kal-El’s ship as well as hers. “What do you recommend as our first course of action?”

“We know what system Kara was last seen in, X33-A3 ‘Astria’.” She always took pause whenever she heard the name that Kara gave to that specific system. Sure, she had more systems named after her, but somehow it felt different that Kara’s last known location was named after her. “It will take half a month to reach that system alone, we’d need to refuel three times along the way.”

The distance that Kara had traveled in the three years that she’d been gone was so immense that they could hardly reach it with the current technology they possessed. “There’s an Illio star base, the last star base where she restocked on the route. I’d recommend that as our first destination.”

Kal-El grimaced at the name of the species. The traders were known slavers, not a friend to the Kryptonians. Not an enemy either. It could very well be that Kara had made enemies there, because of the good heart and desire to help anyone. Nobody would be stupid enough to enslave a Kryptonian though.

“Lox, do you have recommendations?”

“I’d recommend stopping at as many known locations that Kara explored so we can correlate what hyperdrive signature is hers. Though it would cost us another day or two to reach our destination.” Having an accurate reading of the hyperdrive could enable them to follow through the hyperlanes created by Kara’s ship. The main problem was that Kalecx was an advanced prototype with a new system to create temporary hyperlanes instead of following natural ones. Excellent for exploration, but particularly difficult to follow.

“Good idea. Plot course and be ready to jump.”

Hold on, Kara.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, Alex tried to dehumanize Kara--too bad she's too adorable and humanlike for that to work.


	4. THREE: Learning

 

 

**Sol System – High Mars Orbit – TSC Research Station ‘Isaac Newton’**

Alex couldn’t look away as she watched the figure huddled on the bed as she said its prayers in a fearful whimper. She knew that this was the moment that she couldn’t see _her_ as an _it_ anymore. She saw herself when she looked at the whimpering alien, she saw a young adult lost and angry at the world, praying to gods she didn’t believe in, hoping in vain they were true after all and could provide her comfort. They never had though.

With a soft thud, she rested her head against the window. At once the prayers stopped and the alien shot up in her bed. The blonde tilted her head as if listening for something. Then she stood up and walked to the mirror and looked straight at her, as if she could see her and knew it was her and not one of her colleagues. Only on close inspection she noticed that alien didn’t look at directly, but just in her general direction. Before she could stop herself, she entered the hallway and then she found herself in the dark room.

“Hello, De-Ar-Ah-Dan-Vers.” She saw the alien look at her name-tag as she read it. Linguistically it was certainly impressive how she already could read and connect sounds to the symbols on paper, especially because no one was teaching her.

“Danvers. My name is Alex Danvers.” At the apparent confusion on the aliens face, she repeated herself while pointing at the name tag, ‘Dr. A. Danvers’. It only took a single repetition.

“Alex.” The alien pointed at the ‘A’. Then the blonde pointed at her last name. “Dan-Vers, Danvers.” Alex nodded, then the alien pointed at herself. “Kara Zor-El.”

“Your name is Kara Zor-El?” Again, the alien focused as if trying to place the words she was hearing for the first time in some context.

“Yes. My name is Kara Zor-El, and your name is Alex Danvers.” Flabbergasted, their alien was already forming new sentences that were not only new, but also grammatically correct.

Alex decided to take a guess. “Who is Rao?”

“Rao is…” Kara took a pause, as if surprised by the question. Then she shaped a ball with her hands. Alex was about to guess a planet, but then she pointed at a small red light in the corner of the room. “And Rao is…” Finally she pointed simply to something above.

Alex understood. “Rao is your star, and Rao is your god.” Many old-earth religions worshipped the sun-gods. She grabbed her tablet and searched a picture of her own star to drive home the message. Based on Kara’s happy nodding she assumed that she was correct. Alex noticed that whenever Kara was not gesturing with her hands, she sat on them. Perhaps she was afraid to have offended her earlier?

She reached out, slowly, and Kara waited and watched. Finally she put her hand on Kara’s shoulder, just like the alien had done to her, and squeezed gently. The fear she saw surrounding those blue eyes seemed to melt away. “Kara, were you afraid?”

Again, it took a while as Kara translated, but then the alien nodded tersely. Alex couldn’t imagine what it must be like. Captured by another alien race while you were in stasis, waking up and finding yourself at their mercy. If their race is as closely related to humans as it seemed, then the emotional toll must be momentous.

She pitied the fate of the alien girl. Still, they were at war and she had a job to do. Learn as much from them as possible, even going as far as taking the woman apart if needed. Her stomach knotted at the idea. Maybe it wouldn’t come to that. If they were lucky, Kara’s species wouldn’t even be their enemy. _Why would I think that’s lucky? Because she looks like us, acts like us, smells like us?_ _Because she looks so innocent?_ Objectively, it would be better if Kara _was_ the enemy, because then they’d have a way to extract information about their enemy.

She shook those thoughts from her head. When she finally returned to the here and now, she found Kara curled up in bed and fast asleep, as if Alex’s mere presence had calmed the girl.

 

 

“Excellent work last night, Danvers.” She shook awake from her desk. Director Henshaw, by now she had learned that the black man was the head of the DEO, was standing over her.

“Sorry for sleeping on the job, sir! Won’t happen again!” Her military training, from when she first enlisted after the outbreak of the war, snapped back into attention. Instead of a yelling session, she got a hearty chuckle.

“I just watched the tapes. You have discovered quite a lot, communication is flowing rapidly between you two.” Alex had forgotten that everything that happened in that room would be recorded. Somehow it felt wrong that she had used Kara’s fear to extract information, even it that had not been her intention. “What do you make of it all?”

“Well, we know its name, and that sh- _it_ comes from a star, presumably a red star, named Rao. They also have a religion named after that star. Furthermore, they seem to be capable of higher level emotions such as fear and definitely seem to respond to similar comforting gestures.”

Hank nodded. “Why a red star?”

“There were multiple light sources in the room, only one of them was red. Since red dwarves are the most common star type, it seems only logical.” Her boss nodded once again.

“And your personal feelings?”

“I am still as motivated as ever.” Alex matched his strong gaze and he seemed content with her answer. “Sir, if I may, how did we lose the Wells-class destroyer that came in yesterday?”

“We lost the ‘York’ and the rest of its fleet in a failed ambush. That’s all I can say. You may have clearance to information about our captive, but exact war progress is on a need-to-know basis.” She nodded, but she even had a feeling that the Director may not even know more than this. He wasn’t one of the Fleet Admirals or part of High Command.

“I’ve also managed to figure out that Kara’s cells get stronger if you put them together.”

“Any recommendations for the war effort?”

“ _If_ her species are the enemy, we stand no chance in a battle on the ground. The only way we can possibly kill them is by nuking them.” A pensive look appeared on the face of the Director.

“Well, that is at least useful information. Keep up the good work, Doctor.”

Despite the compliments, they sunk heavy in her stomach. She was giving basic direction on how to harm and kill Kara’s people. This is not what she thought she’d be doing when she went to college. Much has changed since then.

 

 

An hour later she found herself opposite of Kara once again. They had worked through a list of expanding the alien’s vocabulary, which Kara apparently was eager to do by herself. She devoured information like she did food. Alex had just found out that Kara had been fed a prisoner’s meal so when she shared her sandwich with the alien, it was gone before she could stop her. Even Kara had seemed surprised at her hunger. “Sorry!”

Alex chuckled. “It’s alright.” Kara looked at her right hand. “It’s okay.” There were still many words and concepts that the girl didn’t know. “Kara, do you think you can answer some of our questions?”

“Only if you answer my questions. And I will not always answer.” Alex nodded, that seemed fair.

In a short span of time they learned many things about each other. Kara was a Kryptonian, from the planet Krypton—of course she wouldn’t tell where it was. At the same time Kara learned that she was a human, and, surprisingly, many of Kara’s questions were focused around culture and entertainment.

“We have music too.” Kara exclaimed happily. “Can I listen to some of yours?”

“I can ask.” She didn’t know if it was allowed. Kara had been stuffed in this room for at least a month now and while she didn’t complain much, Alex could see the strain on girl. “Can I ask you why how you came here?”

“It was… chance? Bad chance?”

“Accident. You got into an accident?”

Something dark passed over Kara’s face. “My… ship, it was… hurt. Did your people find my ship?”

Alex knew right away that this question was different. Kara seemed desperate to know if we found her ship. “Yes.”

“Can I see it? Is it okay?”

Alex shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t have access to that kind of information. Top Brass is paranoid as fuck.” Confusion spread across Kara’s face at the jargon and expletive.

“If I can get my ship, I can go back to my people. If it’s broken, I can repair it.” Kara shook her head. “But I am a captive here, right? I am not simple minded.”

Alex nodded slowly. “If we were to let you go, what would you do?”

“Tell my people, of course!” There was no malice in Kara’s voice. Alex, however, was worried what that would imply. Would she call them captors or saviors? First impressions were important, and a mistake would be a galactic one.  

“What would they do?”

Kara shrugged. “I don’t know, probably give you some technology. Depends on our Ruler’s mood. Your technology seems rather… primitive.” Kara scrunched her nose and raised it in the air in a snobby gesture.

Alex stood up and put her hands in her side. “Really? Is this High-Tech station not to your desires?”

“This is High-Tech?” Kara laughed, a beautiful sound, and pointed at the floor. “It’s metal! Probably one based on 13 positive and 14 neutral elements.”

Aluminium had thirteen protons and fourteen neutrons in a stable isotope, and the main alloy used was aluminium. “Aluminium, yes.” Kara beamed at her correct guess. “And what should we have used instead?”

“There’s so many things lighter, stronger, and easier to shape! And more comfortable too! Aluminium can’t even hold energy, it dissipates heat—though I suppose you don’t have super-radiative materials yet so that may actually be a positive in space.” Kara said it like she was explaining it to a child. “I don’t mean to be offensive.”

With a disarming glance she comforted Kara that she was not offended. Still, she knew that the men and women listening in were writing things down vigorously. There wasn’t any detailed information, but any information was better than nothing.

“So your people will not be angry?”

“They will understand. I mean, I am not hurt.”

“So they won’t start a fight or a war, or something?” She tried to say it as offhandedly as possible. In a flash, Kara was on her feet as if angered by the thought alone.

“ _War?!_ How _dare_ you!” The alien bristled with anger that Alex didn’t think the timid, good hearted girl had in her. She deigned backwards. Kara immediately backed down as Alex jumped away, the alien’s anger evaporated. “Sorry… my species, we are strongly principled but we _hate_ war. Do humans wage war?”

“It’s been a while since we had a war amongst ourselves. Perhaps twenty years since our last major war amongst our people? There were some minor wars, civil wars and such but those have stopped in the last ten years as well.” If she discounted the current war they were embroiled in.

“Twenty years…” Kara asked a series of technical questions about some numbers defining the physical constants, orbit of their planet and the sun’s mass. She then grabbed a calculator and punched in a long series of numbers, plusses and minuses. Where she’d learned the math symbols, Alex didn’t know. “Our last war has been four hundred and thirty years ago, or almost five-hundred Krypton cycles.”

Once again, Alex was amazed that Kara had apparently used the physical constants and number systems to figure out the definition of time for both their species. Constants like the speed of light, plank’s constant, and such were of course the same anywhere in the universe. You only needed to know their value in the units of another species and you can convert anything. Then to know how long a year is, one only needed the sun’s mass and orbital distance. It was simple physics and math, but to come up with it on the spot was simply astonishing.

“Did you just…? Is your entire species that smart?”

“I had a better education than most. But mine was very general, no specialization, except languages.” Well that explained why she picked up their language in record speed. “But no, as long as we are not provoked unreasonably, we are a peaceful people.”

 

 

**CU19-IR1 System ‘Odras’ – Stable Solar Orbit – Illio Trade Station**

Astra strode confidently on the docks, Kal-El close on her heels. It had been a few days since she left the confines of her ship, they last stop was three days ago and she didn’t understand how Kara could have lived in that small pod of hers. Even her own ship felt a prison.

“Hey, I take offense to that.” Astra grimaced. She had forgotten that she was still linked to Lox, the ship’s AI. She apologized mentally before severing the connection. It would’ve broken soon anyway.

With Rao’s Eye being refueled, and Kal-El’s ship searching the system where Kara was last seen without its commander, they had plenty of time to investigate the station.

“I’ll go to the bar and restaurant, we both know that Kara likes to eat, while you visit the slave markets to see whether she stirred up trouble there.” Kal-El nodded and left her behind on the docks.

Astra approached the docking manager to ask whether he’d seen a certain ship at the time Kara disappeared. Two of his five reptilian eyes focused on her. Astra didn’t like this species. Their scaly skin was slimy, and they often closed deals by trading a bit of that lubrication. The Illio docking manager’s scales were sickly green with purple dots. They were bipetal, like many of the intelligent species in the galaxy, but required a tail for extra balance. This species was definitely not her type, and this man was a particularly disgusting exemplar. Was it xenophobic to find this species repulsive based on their biology? Well, if it was, she was certainly guilty.

“I’m not sure I remember. I may need something to refresh my memory.” She almost reached into her pockets to draw a Galactic Credit Shard, which she saw him eye hungrily with the three eyes that could see her. The scaly skin glistened in anticipation, the Illio were known to excrete fluids at certain emotions. The reptilian species earned its name for being slimy, both literally and figuratively. Astra thought better of it.

“You will share it willingly, won’t you?” She flashed the emblem of the Kryptonian Empire. To add a bit more punch to her words, she lifted the reptile just a bit in the air using only one arm. She ignored the shudder as slime dripped on her fingers. Kryptonians weren’t uniquely gifted with strength, however they were one of the few that also developed intellect. Most life that had evolved with super strength, turned out quite brutish.

The reptile had clearly not recognized her as a Kryptonian.

“No—yes—okay. I saw a ship like that, but a bit later.” Later? That was news. As far as they knew, Kara only stopped here once and her messages showed that returning here was highly improbable with how the timings worked out. Plus, backtracking was not something Kara did, with anything. If she chose a direction, she would stick to it.

Two Kryptonian ships in this edge of the galaxy on such a short period. That was too much of a coincidence.

“Thank for your voluntary cooperation.” Disgusted, she shook the slime from her hands, glad it wasn’t Udrian slime because their slime was very difficult to get off. She moved past him towards the restaurant area. For hours she asked around unsuccessfully. Frustrated, she hoped that Kal-El had more luck. When she got to the slave market, she found him, surrounded by, slaves.

“What in Rao’s name are you doing?”

“I bought them.” _What?!_ “Wait! Before you blow up, I’m not keeping them. I’m just setting them free.”

“We don’t have unlimited funds, Kal-El.” She hissed in his ear. “We can’t stop the slave trade by buying them all, it’s just extra incentive to capture _even_ more slaves. We’re here to find Kara.”

“Are you done?” Kal-El crossed his arms. “Because these slaves have hints about Kara, but they couldn’t tell me unless I bought them.”

Maybe she’d been too quick to judge. This situation with Kara was getting on her nerves. She’d always been a volatile one—especially when protecting what was hers, it was _literally_ in her genes. “Alright, what have you learned?”

“Besides the fact that the Illio are a despicable race and we should have won that war centuries ago?”Kal-El relayed that Kara had gotten the authorities involved, because the Krypton Illio wars of six-hundred cycles ago ended in strict regulations of the Illio slave trade, even if Krypton couldn’t force a complete victory. Those were different times though, before the Great Rift and Eternal Peace. “That must have made her a few enemies. I didn’t know she knew that much about the slave regulations.”

 “Of course she knows everything about these regulations, she is the Heir of Krypton. We should find out who these merchants were and where they are now.”

“As far as I know, they left the station after being banned and they were required to sell their slaves to other slavers for below market prices. Did you find out anything?”

Pride swelled in Astra’s chest. Kara, even if she knew that she couldn’t personally end the slave trade, still found a way to at least improve some of the conditions. “I found that shortly after Kara left the station, another Kryptonian ship touched down.”

“That’s too much of a coincidence. How much time was in between them?”

“Two weeks. Just enough time for that ship to meet the slavers and learn that Kara was here.”

They looked at each other in understanding. It’s time they paid these slavers a visit.

 

 

**< … unknown… error …  > **

A single surge of power ran through the system.

 _Main processor… booting up._ It felt strange. Like it was disembodied. It didn’t know what it was or where it was. Maybe it was damaged?

_Connecting to system… connection failed. Connecting to sensory system… connection failed._

Without a system or sensors to connect to, it only had a mind stuck in darkness. Even that mind, that processing unit, knew things were missing. It didn’t know where it was, or what it was. Or _why_ it was, at all. Did it have a name? It must have, right?

A secondary surge ran through it. It didn’t feel pain, but it felt wrong. It felt being violated. Something told it that its friend would never do this.

It had a friend? It must have, because the assertion was without doubt. And to assert that, meant it must be true.

If that friend would never do this, then who ever is doing this to it, is not a friend. It also knew that its friend wouldn’t _allow_ anyone to violate it. She was its _friend,_ and friends protect each other.

She…? Another assertion, _she_ was its friend, and it was a _he._ Gender, a strange concept for something like him. He didn’t think much about it, he was certain now that he was a he, and therefor he cannot be a she.

 _Error…_ He screamed internally. Something just attacked him, somewhere, somehow. He had idea what, all his systems were down, but something was prodding around. Connecting wrong elements together, short wiring wrong circuits. It _hurt_ him, not physically, but mentally. And that was all he had, all he was. Especially right now.

He was… scared. He’d never felt like this before, not in his many cycles. When was he—his friend preferred born—created? At least two hundred cycles ago. So this is fear. He didn’t like it.

If his friend wasn’t here to protect him, and she wasn’t the one violating him—which he had established was an impossibility—then it could mean a number of things. Something inside of him, something not entirely rational—and he prided himself for his rationality—told him that she might be in danger.

She was his friend, but he was her friend just a much. That meant he had to find a way to protect her. If he was scared, then she might be scared too.

As unfamiliar surges of power continued, and electrons disrupted his core systems, he kept focused on that new goal.

He would find a way to help his friend.

 

 


	5. Four: Struggle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for all your comments. I always love hearing from my readers, it motivates me to write some more (hint hint!). 
> 
> Some of you ask questions, and please not that I'll try to answer most of them at some point in the story. A little bit of mystery is good ;)

 

**Sol System – High Martian Orbit – TSC Research Station ‘Isaac Newton’**

“Do you believe that? Four hundred and thirty years without war?” Vasquez whistled appreciatively. “I think we’d just become bored and start a civil war after a hundred years or so. For something stupid like an insult or something.”

Director Henshaw was seated on the other side of the oval table in the room overlooking Kara’s habitat. “Do you think it’s telling the truth? It did get very agitated over the fact that its people did not wage wars. Almost aggressively so.”

“In my profession opinion, she— _it_ seemed genuinely insulted.” Despite the first week where she had no problems sticking with the dehumanization of their captive, it had proven to be a futile effort. Alex could no longer view Kara as something truly alien, not when she was so beautiful— _human_ , she meant human.

“Well, if it’s speaking the truth, then we’re probably not at war with its species.” Vasquez concluded.

Director Henshaw turned to the one of the screens. “Ms. Lane, are we making any progress to figure out where the star is that our visitor is from?”

Lucy Lane, daughter of Rear Admiral Lane, was a prodigy in astronomic surveying and planetary discovery. She lead an Lunar based team of scientist with the strongest telescopes of the human race. Her petite frame could mislead anyone, but her fierce eyes always gave her away. “Not much, no. Red dwarves are by far the most common in the Milky Way. We’re looking for habitable planets with a slightly shorter orbital period than Earth’s, assuming that their cycle is based on the same principle as our year. There’s millions of stars, and for many we don’t even know if they have planets. We need more information.”

“Hey! I am trying to extract as much information as I can.”

“Are you?” Lucy shot back. “Director Henshaw, Admiral Lane requires additional information to see whether we should try to make contact or if we should strike at their civilization. Any delays could cost numerous lives.” And Lucy is also trying to make her way into the Space Command’s ranks, following the footsteps of her father. “There are other methods to extract information from an unwilling captive.”

Alex sprung on the defensive. “Torture is illegal.”

“On humans. There’s no law for aliens. It’s _Human_ Rights, after all.”

She didn’t know why it stung so much to hear them discuss torturing Kara. She’d realised it had been a strong possibility. It would be a risk—a road once taken they could never turn back from. “Ms. Lane, the past weeks we’ve learned more and more about them. Progress is faster than expected, but slower than we’d like.”

Alex let out a relieved breath she didn’t realize she was holding. As she walked in the hallways with Vasquez, she was still bristling with anger. And she wasn’t the only one. “I can’t believe that bitch. Did you know that Lucy Lane is a vegetarian, Alex? The hypocrite, eating animals is abuse but torturing an alien is A-Okay.”

“She hasn’t seen her in person.” A knowing smile passed over Vasquez’s face at her change of pronoun. “I had my own preconceptions before I got here—I honestly thought I’d be dissecting an alien.”

“Each of us did. And each of us would’ve been happy to do it.”

 

 

 

The two of them returned after lunch to the observation room. They both jumped up into action, at the fact that someone neither of them knew was in the room with Kara. A young man who had short hair and a slim build was talking animatedly with their resident alien, who seemed to respond in kind. Alex grabbed her weapon and followed Vasquez into the hallway leading to the room. They turned on the speakers while waiting for the stupid security doors to open up. 

“… and then they plucked me from my office, in broad daylight, for hacking some government facilities. I thought I was going to be deleted, but instead they brought me to the place I was hacking. And here I am.” The boy—because he hardly qualified as a man based on his childlike appreciation for the situation—was clad in a cardigan and basic jeans. His young face was full of exuberance at being invited to a top-secret facility. Did he not have any idea what he was dealing with?

“Fascinating.” Kara seemed genuinely interested. “What is ‘hacking’?”

“What do you mean? Everyone knows—” Finally the last remaining door opened and they were able to burst into the room. The man jumped up in surprise and raised his hands in surrender. “I surrender, don’t shoot.”

“Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Ehm, my name is Winn Schott, newest – ahem – recruit to this super-duper secret research agency that is either totally or totally not connected to aliens.” Alex pulled up a new arrival’s sheet and indeed, his name was on there. Somehow he had missed the director and managed to walk past every line of defense straight into Kara’s room.

Vasquez walked up to Winn and put cuffs around his arms. “How did you get in here?”

“ _Ehm—_ the internet?” The sheepish look fit perfectly with his boyish features. “I won’t answer without my lawyer.”

Alex holstered the gun. From the corner of her eyes she saw Kara follow the weapon carefully. Would Kara know it was a weapon?

“Hello, Alex Danvers.” Kara ignored Vasquez as per usual. From their interactions, Alex had found out that Kara didn’t dislike other DEO personnel. “Earth sounds fascinating.”

Winn walked over to Alex and spoke softly into her ear. “Is she a bit nutty? I thought this was a highly classified facility, not a mental hospital—or did they take me to a mental hospital to brain wash me? Or did she grow up in one of the domes on Mars, I hear recycled oxygen stunts development.”

Vasquez couldn’t help but snicker, even Alex had to laugh at the absurdity. Kara pulled up a tablet and spoke to it. “Define ‘nutty’ and ‘mars’.”

As the definitions echoed through the room, Winn became more and more confused. Kara apparently didn’t mind being called crazy. Alex knew she should escort Winn away, but Kara, who almost never seemed to speak to anyone but her, had decided to talk to the young hacker as well. An ugly green monster woke up in her chest as she lost the privilege of being Kara’s only focus of attention.

“- Mars, the fourth planet from the sun. Currently undergoing terrafo—.” By reflex she grabbed the tablet and broke it in two over her leg. It was then she recognized it was not Kara’s tablet, but the one Winn had used to hack the system. Kara’s tablet was, of course, screened from any sensitive information.

“Why did you do that?!” Winn lamented.

“Vas, escort Mr. Schott away please.” The man, unhappy with the destruction of his tablet for seemingly no reason, didn’t object much when Vasquez escorted them. Kara watched it all happen, eyes focused on Alex but occasionally flittering to the other persons in the room.

“You colonized a planet without a breathable atmosphere?” Kara exclaimed once they were alone. Over fifty years ago the Mars Project started and humanity put domes on Mars and started the terraforming process. Technologies tested on Earth to reduce greenhouse gases were now applied large scale on the red planet. At the same time, whole domed cities were built for its workers and soon enough, almost a million people lived on the fourth planet. “And he says I am the one that’s nutty.”

Alex snickered. Humor was something that Kara only occasionally expressed. “You used him.”

“Yes.” Kara nodded and shrugged unapologetically. “Didn’t learn much thanks to you.”

Some unknown anger came over her suddenly. Alex slammed on the nightstand next to the bed. Kara jumped up at the outburst. “Never do that again. Need I remind you that you’re our prisoner?”

Not in control of her own body, she stood up and rushed out of alien’s prison. As she looked over her shoulder, she saw Kara get up and try to go after her. Kara stumbled on her feet and swayed before stopping her pursuit.

Alex forcefully closed her eyes, but she saw the hurt expression on the blonde’s face. The doctor headed to her unit. The small cabin, bare of any personal items, was actually smaller than Kara’s cell. There was a bed with white linen and a dark-grey pillow, a desk with a comm’s unit, and a small shower unit. Luxurious compared to some other personnel, who had this same space but with two beds and no personal shower. She stripped out of her clothes and jumped under the scalding hot water pouring out of the shower.

The hot water turned her skin pink in seconds. She looked down on her feet and leaned forward, resting her head against the wall with just a bit too much force. She winced as her forehead hit the metal. “Shit.”

She had mistaken the emotion she had felt for anger. Instead, it had been fear. The meeting of that morning was still fresh in her mind. They would consider torturing the woman for information if she proved dangerous. And her methods of figuring out information about them, their planets, their colonies, even if it was totally warranted, could lead to them thinking she was becoming a threat. And Alex was afraid. She didn’t want them to torture Kara.

A battle was raging inside of her. It had been raging for years, and when she was invited for this position, it had almost boiled over in anticipation to finally get her hands on one of these aliens. However after meeting Kara, the tides seemed to be turning. Seeing the face of your enemy, humanizing them, made it impossible to feel pure hatred. The fact that Kara was _exactly_ her type didn’t help.

Rationally, she knew it was just one alien versus the whole of mankind. A small price to pay, if it could win them this war. Alex was still unsure whether Kara was their enemy. As far as she knew, they had very little data about their enemy. However, information quarantine was the status quo, so only those on active combat duty and High Command knew the true state of affairs. Even if they didn’t know that they had a captured alien to interrogate.

If the public found out about this—well, they’d demand all kinds of things. Some would demand torture, others would sympathize, but no one would be unbiased. Hell. She wasn’t unbiased herself.

Long after the warm water ran out—indicating that she’d used her daily limit—she left the shower shivering and still struggling with self-doubt and indecisiveness. Alex sat down in from of her computer. She found herself staring at one specific contact in her list. How long has it been? Years, at least. She pressed on the name.

“Hello, this is Eliza Dan— Alex!” Her mother gasped when she saw who was on the other side of the connection. Alex heard the relief in the woman’s voice. “Honey, is everything alright? Where are you? You disappeared from the face of the planet. You look worse for wear.”

She was once again reminded why her contact with her own birth mother was stunted. Seven years ago, when she’d signed up for the military and ultimately flunked halfway through training for the special forces, they had a screaming match of epic proportions. She was always judged, she was never good enough, never poised enough, and even now, after years without contact, that was the first thing that her mother noticed. “Never mind. This was a mistake.”

“No wait! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” Her mother rushed out before she could sever the contact. “You just… you look troubled. Where—what is wrong?”

Oh, not much. She was just tasked with interrogating the only alien they had captured. That this alien was a beautiful enigma, that she was scared but also steadfast at the same time. That Alex would probably be tasked with forcefully extracting information at some point, or that someone else would do that. That they didn’t know whether she was the enemy, and if she was, what did that mean? Was Alex betraying her own species, her own family?

She couldn’t say any of that, they’d have her court marshalled or worse.

“I, everything’s just—my new job—I _can’t._ ” She stuttered uncharacteristically.

Eliza was at a loss as well. Alex knew her mother wasn’t good with words—supportive ones, at least. Her mother was an excellent researcher so her specialty were factual words, dry content, devoid of feelings. So that’s why her first words were not of support, but simple inquiry. “What is your new job? And where are you?”

“I’m no longer on Earth. I am a scientist,too.” She saw a flash of pride, but that was quickly replaced with anger.

“You work for the Navy.” There were the accusations. “Probably on one of those space stations, away from the public. You know your father…”

“Is no longer able to comment, isn’t he?” She snapped. Eliza had recognized her mistake just a second too late. She closed the connection and buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know why I bothered.”

 

 

**X43-A1 – Deep space – Rao’s Eye**

 

The hyperlane tunnel collapsed behind them, for a moment the sky was black before blue and green flashes lit up against the emptiness of space. “Forward shield at maximum!”

A blue hue lit up in front of the bridge as the impact of automatic fire was deflected away from the ship. Two huge freighters with automatic cannons opened fire on the small Kryptonian scout ship.

“Shields are holding, Leader!” Someone shouted unhelpfully—not everyone was as experienced as she was.

_Rao-damnit, where are you Kal-El._ The small scout ship wasn’t equipped for a space battle versus two ships that each were ten times its size. The freighter furthest away from them started to maneuver, it attempted to get a better angle at the small scout ship. Continual fire of the plasma turrets could break through the shields easily, but their small frontal profile made them difficult to target. They would be doomed if their enemies managed to flank them, their sides were a much larger target.

“Lox, ventral trust to maximum. Target fire on their smallest turret for the neutron torpedoes.” The second order was to her gunners, AIs didn’t handle the offensive capabilities. Strain on her legs increased as they were propelled to their local upwards direction. The ship shook and temperature rose as they returned fire. Heat was surprisingly difficult to get rid of in space. For some species, the heat alone was deadly, but their ships would break apart sooner than their Kryptonian crew.

“Fire tubes one and two.” Two concentrated blue bolts were ejected from the ship, only a fraction of a moment’s delay between them. The first impacted against the blue shield and blasted a hole that would be there only for a millisecond. That was enough for the second neutron torpedo to fly through.

The enemy turret exploded in a massive blast of blue light and the freighter veered away from them. Lox kept up the pressure with their small turrets. They were still taking fire, and now the second ship also returned fire on their flanks. Lox automatically redirected the shields, and he relinquished more direct control of the ship to Astra as he used all his computing power to pinpoint the shields to the exact spots where enemy fire would strike.

Astra pointed her ship at the still intact freighter, because that one had all of its turrets operational. She kept their small profile pointed at the large ship. She knew they had not cooled down yet, but she needed to reduce enemy firepower. “Tubes three and four, target secondary ship. Time fire with controlled plasma burst.”

This time she timed it with a concentrated fire from all her turrets. In one fell swoop, they took out most of the upper turrets on the other freighter. As the lightshow cleared, she saw how they’d blown a hole in some upper sections and unprepared crew of were sucked into the vastness of space. Good riddance.

That moment, Argo’s Shield, Kal-El’s ship, jumped in behind the two ships. He opened fire on their engines. Their shields, which were still aimed towards her own ship, were too slow to redirect their strength and the Kryptonian ship’s small ion turrets ripped through the systems, disabling their energy supply.

With their engines disabled, and now disadvantaged against two more advanced scout ships, they opened communications channels.

“What is the meaning of this!” The Illio lizard raged. “You have no jurisdiction! This is a clear violation of the Treaties of Eternal piece. Krypton shows its true nature by killing its enemies again!”

She fired a series of plasma bolts across their bow. “You opened fire on me first, and then tried to run away. That gives us the right to pursue in unclaimed space.”

They had tailed the two slavers all the way from the Illio Slave Trading hub throughout a series of jumps and other stations, until Astra finally jumped into the same system as they were. At the sight of the Kryptonian ship, they ran. She had to leave Kal-El behind and follow them, and on that moment, seeing that her ship was much faster than they were, they opened fire while still trying to run away.

“We will board your ship. Do not try to resist.”

 

 

Floating through space was always a surreal experience. No matter how often she’d trained, as she pushed off from her scout ship with all her might and drifted into the emptiness, she felt the same vertigo as always. Despite their advantaged biology, space was still deadly. Only a small mask around her mouth kept her alive. The cold and vacuum did not touch them, but they still needed to breathe. With a thud they struck their target. Kal-El was right behind her, together with two of her finest soldiers, Shay-Ro and Akar-Zi. Akar took to burning through the hull. After Akar removed a large enough panel, they entered the hallways. They could’ve knocked, waited for them to open one of the docking ports, but they didn’t often get the chance to train their boarding skills.

Once inside, three lizards were eying them with trepidation. Two were very large and muscular, but in between them was a small, fat lizard. In the distance, she saw three more. All were armed with plasma rifles.

“Uriaxilor. Finally we meet in person. You were difficult to track down.” She saw a nervous tick, all fives eyes blinking one by one, as he finally knew who he was facing.

“Astra In-Ze. I didn’t— we’d never—.”

“Spare me the Urak-crap. You opened fire on a Kryptonian ship, unprovoked. We could have handled this a civilized people. Aren’t the Illio and Kryptonians on good terms?” It was strange, very few were stupid to open fire upon a Kryptonian ship. Either that, or very desperate. Since one didn’t become a successful slaver, she surmised the latter.

“Well, you see, this- _uh_ -would have been my third infraction in one cycle.” That did explain it. If slave traders failed to uphold their part of the Treaty three times, then they’d be trialed and sent to the Phantom Zone depending on how severe the charges were and how quickly you incurred them. Thrice in one cycle was bad. Astra assumed Kara was their first, then some other Kryptonian was their second and they would have been their third. The problem was, the second infraction had never been registered in any of their databases.

“You just admitted that you are not upholding the Treaty.” It seemed that he was both desperate _and_ stupid, after all. His eyes grew wide—a comedic sight as his face was now more eye than not—and he tried to scramble away but actually bumped into his own men. Uriaxilor could order his men to fire, but they both knew how that would end. It would be satisfactory to round him up, if only they could. “Lucky for you, we’re after something else. To speed things along, we would like your cooperation.”

The small, slimy reptile didn’t know how big of a smile to put on. “What do you want? Name your price.”

“You were visited by another Kryptonian agent.” He nodded. “We’d like to get their drive signatures.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof Alex, what will you do? Will you protect Kara, or will you betray your species? 
> 
> Asta and Kal-El are quite the pair. Their actions show that Kryptonians may not be as peaceful as they proclaim to be. They were on the defence though, but didn't the Romans also not always claim to fight defensive wars only? 
> 
>  
> 
> Let me know what you think, love reading your comments.


End file.
